Stranger Allies
by Great Gray Owl
Summary: Clockwork's methods of keeping Danny alive, and content, are sometimes questionable at best. But Danny has never had a reason to think that his ghostly guardian wasn't trying to keep him safe, and if not completely happy, at least mostly sane...Until now.
1. Part one: Preparation

**_Disclaimer: _**_I don't own Danny Phantom._

* * *

"So your Dad actually remembered his anniversary?" Sam asked, it was Saturday and the three fifteen year olds were having lunch at the Nasty Burger. "That's the first time since…"

"Ever." Danny supplied, "He not only remembered, but he bought tickets for the two of them to go on a three week cruise, kind of a second honey moon deal. Of course, it's Dad, so the cruise ship is rumored to be haunted."

"Well, that figures." Tucker joined in, "I mean, they are ghost hunters." He added taking a bite of his burger.

"Yeah." Danny said, picking up a fry, he might have said more, but just then his ghost sense went off. He dropped the fry back into the box and looked around.

"Can I have your fries?" Tucker asked automatically, even though he hadn't even started on his own fries.

"Beware! It is I; the Box Ghost." The familiar cry was coming from a shoe store just down the street.

Danny sighed and glanced around again, hoping to spot Valerie, or even Jazz who was getting pretty good and could probably take on the Box Ghost by herself now, he could just hang around just out of range of the thermos, in case things got out of hand. "Darn, three other ghost hunters and two ghost hunters in training in this town, and none of them around when you need them." He muttered, standing up and grabbing the Fenton Thermos out of his bag. "And no." he answered Tucker.

"You don't really need them," Sam pointed out, "You just don't want to deal with him yourself."

"The point remains that they aren't here." Danny said over his shoulder as he headed off for a place to go ghost. While there were a lot more people who knew his secret now, he still didn't want the whole town, and in a week or two, the planet, to know.

Tucker looked at Sam, "You have to admit, the Box Ghost is more a pest than a threat, and I think Jazz could take him on her own now." He said reaching for Danny's fries.

Sam glared at him and he backed off with a grin, "I know, but he needs the distraction anyway." She pointed out.

"Did his Dad really shoot at him again yesterday?" Tucker asked, opening a packet of ketchup for his fries.

"No. How'd you hear about that anyway?" Sam asked; the whole scene had occurred last night during her date with Danny.

"It made the morning news." Tucker said with a shrug.

"Oh… Must have missed that." Sam said. "He wasn't shooting at Danny, he was shooting at Skulker. Danny just happened to end up in the line of fire; you know how Danny's dad shoots."

"There is that." Tucker agreed, "It's got to be tough on Danny though, still having to dodge shots from his Dad."

"It's not like his Dad is actually shooting _at_ him…"

"I'm not sure if that fact makes it better or worse…"

"Yeah… Neither is Danny." Sam said, and they both paused to consider the question.

"On the one hand: he's not shooting _at_ him anymore." Tucker pointed out.

"On the other hand: he's coming closer to hitting him than when he _was_ shooting at him." Sam countered.

"And on the other, other hand: Mom took the Fenton Bazooka away from him after she saw the news this morning." Danny said as he sat back down, tossing the thermos back in his backpack and slapping Tucker's hand away from his fries.

"Danny!" Tucker exclaimed. "You're back quicker than I expected…"

"It was only the box ghost."

---------------------

Danny scowled slightly as he stared at the computer screen; the page seemed to be taking forever to load. He tried to remember why he'd agreed to do this extra credit report on mars, of course, he'd probably need the extra credit to pass science. Just like he'd probably need the extra credit from that report he'd done on Othello to pass English. Ghost had this bad habit of showing in force right when he needed to be working on an important assignment or studying for an important test. So racking up the extra credit during lulls seemed like one of his sister's better suggestions.

He blinked and spun when his ghost sense went off; he relaxed only slightly when he saw Clockwork floating over by his bed. "Hi?" he said hesitantly when the silence lasted a few seconds too long.

"You need to stay with Plasmius while your parents are gone." Clockwork said, getting right to the point, even as he shifted from adult to child.

* * *

**_Author's Note: _**_Yes, I know, evil timing on ending the chapter. This, like all of my fan fictions, is mostly being used to work through the Writers Block currently plaguing my original works. However, I do need a beta for this, so if anyone wants to volunteer, please message me._


	2. Clockwork

**_Chapter Two_**

**_Disclaimer:_**_ If I owned anything of any real value, do you really think I'd be writing fanfiction? So no, I don't own Danny Phantom._

_

* * *

_

Danny was on his feet in an instant, "What?! Why? Why I can't stay with Tucker, like always?!"

Clockwork sighed, he'd known Danny would react like this, but he'd still been hoping the child would surprise him as he occasionally did. Not that he would ever admit to anyone that he was ever surprised by anything. "I'm trying to keep you alive." He said, "You're going to need the other halfas' help while your parents are gone."

"But I can get Danielle's help without talking to Vlad!"

"_Both _other halfas, Danny."

"But Plasmius-"

"When you were trapped in the future, the one you prevented from occurring, you went to him to remove the time amulet from your body. You trusted him to do that and not take the chance to destroy you." Clock work interrupted.

"That was different, that was desperation." Danny argued, "Besides, he seemed relatively sane at the time."

Clockwork took a deep breath, shifting from child to old man. With a muttered "Time out." he pressed a button on his staff, stopping time for the moment. He then floated over to Danny and dropped a time amulet over the boy's head. "I understand that you don't want to think of Vlad Masters as an ally, but the fact remains that you've fought beside him many times in the past without too much trouble."

"He was usually the reason we were fighting to begin with…" Danny muttered, noticing that there was a bat frozen in mid flight, inches from a moth, outside his window. Clockwork must be settling in for a long argument.

"The point remains that he usually tried to keep you alive-"

"When he wasn't trying to kill me, or clone me, or-"

"Danny!" Clockwork snapped, shifting rapidly through all three of his forms in his annoyance.

Danny glanced at the bat again as it occurred to him that angering the ghost who could, and would, stop time just for an argument might not be the best of ideas. Besides, Clockwork didn't have to kill him; he could just change the timeline and make it so that he never existed to begin with, not even his parents would ever know that anything was different. He sat back down slowly, looking back at Clockwork.

"Tucker is a friend, a good one, one that has never tried to kill me when he wasn't under some form of mind control. I'd be perfectly safe at his house… Safer than staying with that crazed up fruit loop anyway."

Clockwork, back in his adult form, studied Danny, the sudden change in tactic wasn't exactly expected, though the continued argument was. "I'll give you that Tucker is, in many ways, one of your stronger allies. But the fact remains that he is human and this instance he lacks the sheer power necessary to protect you."

"From what? What in the Zone could I possible need protecting from?" Danny asked. The biggest threat he faced on any sort of regular basis was Skulker, and since he'd just kicked his butt last night he probably wouldn't show back up until he found some new weapon or trap to try out. Technus could be a pain, but he was still running the worst software known to man. And Walker was too busy hoping Plasmius would break the terms of his probation for either of them to bother with Danny. Besides, Plasmius was on house arrest in the human world, when he wasn't being escorted to and from his therapy appointments in the ghost zone anyway, and since they were using his own 'improved' ghost shield (the one that works against humans and ghosts) he wouldn't be much of a threat even if it weren't for Walker looking over his shoulder. Danny just didn't have any powerful enemies at the moment, at least, not that were free to cause trouble.

In answer Clockwork merely pulled an odd looking thermos with the side blown out and set it on Danny's desk, then he took his time amulet and with a simple, "Time in." he left, his point had been made and he was confident the boy would at least consider the possibility that he, and his friends, might be safer if he stayed elsewhere. Now, to make sure Plasmius would be agreeable…

-----------------

Vlad Masters, stared down at the contents of the envelope he'd found on his desk, it hadn't been there a moment ago when he'd gone to get some coffee. There had been a newspaper article in it, reporting the death of the town hero, and his cousin, after a battle with an unusually powerful and determined ghost. According to the article, Danny had died on the scene, within moments of capturing the troublesome ghost, and Danni had died several hours later from her own injuries. At the bottom of the article it stated that Danny had been staying with the Foley's while his parents were out of town, a list of where to send donations for the fund to rebuild the Foley house along with several other local residences could be found on page six apparently (page six was not included in the envelope), the Fenton's were unavailable for comment as they were on their way back to the city, and that Vlad Masters, had declined to comment as to why Plasmius had not left the safety of his ghost shield to help his daughter.

_My ghost shield! _Vlad thought angrily, it was his _prison_ and the entire town knew it. While it was his, in that he improved the design to point it was at, and that it was there because he was here, it was still in place only to keep him _in_. He had a belt on to keep him was doing anything truly interesting with his powers, taking it off would be a violation of his probation and he wouldn't risk it with Walker taking such an interest in the matter, and somehow his human guards had gotten a hold of his device for shorting out Danny's powers, now all of them had one. He was pretty sure Danny was to blame for that, or possibly Danni, but probably Danny.

Danny was probably also responsible for this cruel joke of a news article; it wouldn't be the first time one of his pranks had gotten more than a little out of hand. But then again, Danny Fenton's pranks tended to lean more towards public embarrassment rather than any true cruelty. Besides, something like this would really upset Maddie if she found it, and Danny wouldn't risk that for the world.

Vlad scowled, and of course there was the fact that Danny was outside the shield, and wouldn't be able to get inside in either form. Someone would have to let him in, and Danielle was staying with a friend tonight. Which meant that she couldn't be responsible for this either; butter biscuits!

Unless they came in through the portal, but that was guarded on both sides by Walker's men and the Guys in White respectively. Though it wasn't uncommon for Walker's men to be on this side, he was starting to think it was just to prove that the Guys in White were completely useless as guards, they usually stuck to the lab. Danny might be able to get past the Guys in White, but Walker's men were a little tougher, held a grudge, and didn't like Danny much more than they liked Plasmius.

It was at this point in his musing that he noticed the second piece of paper sticking out of the envelope; it was much smaller than the article, just enough paper for the short note to be written on, so it had been easy to miss.

_You can prevent this_, _Clockwork_.

"Damn."

* * *

**_Author's Note: _**_Hm… Let's see: Make Danny unhappy: check. Make Vlad unhappy: check. Set the stage for the next chapter: check. Justify my 'T' rating: check. Get someone to proofread this stuff for me: … Knew I was forgetting something. Oh well hopefully you'll, enjoy this chapter anyway. I'll be away from home (and my internet connection) this weekend so this story is going onto my jump drive and maybe I'll have another chapter for you when I get back._


	3. Monday

**Chapter Three**

**_Disclaimer: _**_Would the world come to an end if I didn't say I don't own anything interesting (like Danny Phantom) every chapter?_

* * *

Vlad scowled at the ghost across the desk from him, his Mondays were chaotic enough without Walker demanding to see him. He had an anger management appointment at ten, then had to be at his normal therapy appointment with Spectra at two, and since his anger management group was made up of ghosts he was stuck with Walker's men most of the day. But damn-it, he wasn't supposed to have to deal with them for another two hours, okay, more like one hour and forty-five minutes. But still, they were ruining his morning far earlier than necessary.

"May I ask what it is he wants to see me about?" He asked, covering his hostility with a thin coating of manners and civility as usual.

"You can ask…" The ghost said, then simply smiled when Vlad raised a brow in question. "I won't tell you, but you can ask."

Vlad clenched his teeth lightly, the day had barely started and he was already getting a headache; this did not bode well. On the other hand, that was the sort of thing he would have done to young Daniel once upon a time… Actually, he'd probably still do it to Danny if he got a chance. Not that he was likely to get that chance with Walker breathing down his neck.

There was a soft knock on the door, and were Vlad another kind of man, his daughter might have been the first person he thought of rather than the last person he expected to see on the other side. "Daddy? I'm about to leave." Danielle said, sticking her head in.

"Yes, yes… You need lunch money don't you?" He asked her, mostly wanting to hurry up and get her out of the room. At Danni's slight nod he waved for her to come on in and started looking in his desk for his wallet, he didn't carry it with him anymore since the only time he left the house was to go into the ghost zone, and finding his wallet if he lost it in there would be worse than a nightmare.

Danni came in and stood by the desk while her father found his wallet and figured up how much to give her, she couldn't help but notice that there was a newspaper on the desk. That was strange, she usually bought the paper on her way home from school, that was why he gave her twice as much money as she actually needed for a weeks worth of school lunches. She scanned the headline she waited. "Here, this should be enough for the week." He said shoving some bills into her hand and giving her a light shove towards the door.

The ghost Vlad had been talking to, who had not left the room while Danielle was in there, couldn't help but notice how the child started when Plasmius gave her the money, or how she was so much paler when she left the room than when she entered it. He considered saying something, but it wasn't really his place. After all, what did he know about how this household was run? He might escort the prisoner from time to time, but he hardly ever saw the girl. "We need to get going; Walker won't cut his meeting with you short if you're late."

Vlad sighed and transformed into Plasmius, then both ghosts simply phased through the floor towards the portal in the lab. He paused briefly in the entrance hall, noticing that Danni was just heading out the door, "Don't forget to pick up a newspaper on your way home!" he called before continuing on, he managed to miss the confused look she sent him.

----------------

"Danni, what are you doing here?" Danny asked, it was time to leave for school, he would have left already except that he hadn't yet told Jazz about the change in plan and she was still operating under the 'prove that Jazz and Danny can take care of each other and should be left home rather than sent to stay with friends while their parents are gone' plan, and was therefore driving him, Sam, and Tucker to school. It wasn't that he was taking advantage of this plan, as such, more that he wasn't certain how to explain to her why he was changing the plan without her telling their parents and causing their parents to cancel the trip.

"I need to talk to you Danny." Danni said, landing beside him, they were around the side of the Fenton house so they didn't have to worry about someone seeing her and wondering why Phantom's cousin was talking to the Fenton kids. While it was a known fact that the Fentons were much more accepting of Phantom since the Disasteroid, even fighting beside him sometimes, it was just as much a '_fact_' that Danny didn't deal with ghosts.

"Now? We have got to work on your timing Danni…" Danny groaned.

"Can we use full names here? This whole Danny, Danni thing is a little confusing for those of us who only had four hours of sleep." Tucker complained. He didn't want to mention that he hadn't slept well because he'd spent the better part of the night before sick. He seemed to be over it now, and if he mentioned that he was sick, they'd say he should stay home, and if he stayed home, his Mom would want to take him to the doctor. He hated doctors more than he hated school.

"Are you okay Tuck?" Sam asked worriedly, the dark skinned boy seemed unusually pale.

Tucker instantly stopped leaning against the car, "I'm fine, I guess shouldn't have had that video game marathon last night…" He waited Danny and Jazz turned their attention back to Danni, Sam hesitated before doing the same. He let his breath out, both his friends knew he loved video games, but they also knew he didn't much care for playing them alone. And since Danny had been out fishing with his Dad yesterday, and Sam had been hanging out with Jazz, Valerie, and Danielle (something about target practice, though he wasn't certain for whom) it was only a matter of time before they started wondering about his story.

"Danielle, we don't have time for this right now, we're going to be late for school. Can't this wait?" Danny asked.

"No! I need to talk to you now!" Danielle said, she was clearly upset about something, and for a girl as independent as she was, it had to be something big to have sent her running to Danny.

Danny hesitated, glancing at Jazz intending to ask her to leave without him. "Look-"

"It's okay Danny, you take Danielle to school, and she can tell you what's wrong on the way. I'll drive Sam and Tucker, and we'll meet you there." Jazz said with a smile, taking his back pack out of the car and handing it to him.

"If you aren't there by the start of first period, we'll think of something to tell Lancer." Sam agreed, Tucker nodding his agreement on the other side of the car.

"You could even use the truth this time, my cousin came by, we both missed the bus, and I'm getting her to school before I come in." Danny pointed out before changing into Danny Phantom, and picking up Danni's dropped bag as well as his own. "Come on Danni- Danielle." He rolled his eyes slightly at Tucker before the two halfas took off. "So, what is it you needed to talk to me about?" he asked.

Danielle hesitated, now that he was here; it seemed like a foolish thing to be upset over. It was so obviously some sort of cruel joke. But then again… It would be foolish to forget about the Ghost Writer, if he could make something happen by writing about it, what if there were other ghosts that could do the same thing? "It's this article I saw on Daddy's desk…"

* * *

**_Author's Note:_**_ I really need a beta for this… Oh well, if you any suggestion or complaints, please let me know. As you can see, I'm back from vacation, and this fic is, sort of, working to deal with my writers block. I'm happy about that, I'll be even happier when I manage to do more than stare blankly at one of my original stories..._


	4. Downhill Slide

_**Chapter Four**___

_**Disclaimer:**__ If I owned it, I'd be rich; I'm not, so I don't._

_

* * *

_

Danny and Danielle landed beside the dumpsters behind the middle school, she was going to be late to class anyway and the dumpsters provided good cover for the pair of them to change back to their human forms. "So you didn't notice a date on the article?" Danny asked, handing Danielle a bag as the two of them started for the front of the building. He'd walk her to the office, that way he could get a note from them saying that he really had been taking her to school. It just made things simpler, even if there were sometimes questions about how he got from one school to the other so fast. Most people just assumed his parents drove him.

Danni shook her head, "I didn't really get a close look at it, I just saw the head line." She replied. "'Deadly battle over Amity, Phantom and Friends killed.'" She quoted, stopping on the steps. "That has to be some sort of cruel joke right?"

Danny paused, "The Ghost Writer is the only one I know of who can make something happen by writing about it, and newspaper articles aren't really his style." He said, trying to reassure her without actually lying to her. "I would like to see that article though." He added thoughtfully as they started walking again.

It wasn't lost on Danni as they went inside, that he didn't say he thought it was a joke, "Come over this afternoon, I can show it to you then." She suggested.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea Danni…" Danny said hesitantly.

"Why not?" Danni asked, then blinked, "Oh yeah… But he wouldn't try anything, he's on probation, remember? You probably won't even see him."

"Yeah… Okay." He responded thinking that he probably needed to talk to Vlad anyway, but he needed to convince his parents first and his Dad hadn't reacted so well yesterday when Danny had brought Vlad up as a subject, so not well in fact, that Danny hadn't had the courage to suggest him as a potential babysitter. "Should I ask Sam and Tucker to come along too?"

Danni smiled, she knew it his not so subtle way of asking how her grades were doing. Danny and his friends were tutoring her so that she could go to a public school and wouldn't be locked up in the house with Vlad all day. She started to tell him not to bother, but then she remembered her last math test. "You might want to…" she said with a wince.

Danny couldn't help but grin as he opened the door to the main office for her, "Is it Math or English that's kicking your butt?" he asked teasingly.

Danielle made a face at him as she walked past to go sign herself in, "Math…" she muttered as he came up beside her to ask the woman behind the big desk for the note to take back to his school.

---------------

All in all, things weren't going to badly today, granted he was late for school yet again, but there hadn't been any signs of ghost attacks on the way here, and he had only missed about half of English. _Things could be worse_, Danny thought, then sighed when Tucker ran by towards the bathroom. _I just had to think it…_

"Hey Tuck, you okay?" He called, having followed his friend into the empty boy's room. The sound of someone being ill answered the question pretty well. "It's too early for lunch so it can't be the goulash… Either you ate my Mom's cooking, Lancer's doing his Juliet impression again, or you've caught that stomach thing that had half the class out Friday."

Tucker came out of the stall a minute later, looking pale and shaky. "Dude, the sausages had teeth. Even I don't eat food that's trying to eat me back." He said as he went to the sink to rinse his mouth out.

"And there aren't enough people in here for it to be Lancer, so it must be that stomach virus."

"I'm fine."

"You need to go to the nurse."

"No I don't!" Tucker said, going even paler, if that were possible.

Danny threw a comforting arm over Tucker's shoulder, "It'll be fine, you'll see. The nurse will take one look at you, she'll see that you're sick, and she'll send you home. We've all gone through it at some point."

Tucker shook his head, "Not me. I've managed to never go in there." He said shakily, "Really Danny, I can make it through the rest of the school day." This might have been more convincing if he hadn't made another dash for a stall right then.

Danny sighed and leaned against the wall beside one of the sinks, "Come on Tucker, be reasonable. A trip to the nurse's office is hardly the end of the world."

"And if I don't go willingly you'll just overshadow me and make me go anyway, so this whole conversation is kind of pointless isn't it?" Tucker replied, coming out of the stall again.

Danny smiled and nodded, "Pretty much, yeah."

"I thought you were supposed to be one of the good guys…" Tucker muttered as they left the bathroom.

"It's for your own good Tuck."

------------------

By the time Danny managed to get to English class, students were pouring out of the room. He sighed, he'd missed the entire class period, but at least he still had plenty of time to hand in his homework before his next class.

"Sorry I'm late Mr. Lancer, I'd have been in earlier but I ran into Tucker in the hall." Danny said, coming into to nearly empty room. He noticed that Sam stopped to wait by the door when she saw him come in, and a couple other kids were still gathering their stuff. But the room would probably be empty in another minute or two.

"Where is Tucker anyway?" Sam asked from beside the door.

"His Mom picked him up." Danny told her; Sam nodded, that was pretty much what she'd expected to happen when Tucker had bolted from the room without warning.

"Please tell me you at least have your homework today…" Mr. Lancer said, he sounded like class today had been a tough one.

"Actually, I do!" Danny said cheering up. Lancer looked up from the papers he was stacking, a surprised look on his face as Danny started digging through his bag. "Wait a second… No, no, no…" Danny flopped into a desk and dropped his head into his hands. "This day cannot get worse."

"What's wrong Danny?" Sam asked, coming up beside him.

"Danni has my bag."

---------------------

"If I fly for it now, I can probably get to the middle school, switch bags with Danni, and get back before lunch is over." Danny pointed out to Sam over lunch.

"Unless you meet a ghost, or she's not there, or you run into one of those 'generous' fans of yours that happen think you're some sort of vampire." Sam pointed out.

Danny winced, "Those guys are crazier than Vlad… Did you know some of them mail blood to the Mayor's office?"

"What?!"

Before Danny could respond to that, or really enjoy the seldom seen look of complete shock on Sam's face, his ghost sense went off and a ghost flew into the cafeteria. "I'll tell you about it later Sam." He said as he ducked under the table and transformed, though he probably could have stood on the table and transformed at that point, most everyone on the room was staring at the ghost cheerleader who was hovering near the ceiling, looking around like she was expecting someone.

Danny flew to hover not far from her, "UW? Aren't you a little far from home?" he asked, looking at her uniform.

The ghost girl shrugged, "I actually died at a game not far from here, stupid basketball game."

Out of the corner of his eye Danny saw the basket team start making their way towards the doors, "A basketball game killed you?" He asked, wondering on the how of that one.

"Cheering at a basketball game killed me. But that's not why I'm here-" She broke off as she noticed the cheerleaders had started slinking out as well. "Are they always this skiddish?"

"Only around strange ghosts talking about dying at sporting events..." He muttered though he had to admit, she didn't seem interested in hurting anybody, or doing any damage. Somehow, he didn't find that comforting, he found it suspicious. "If you aren't here because basketball and cheerleading killed you, and for some reason you connect it to this school, why are you here disrupting their lunch?"

"Well, I'm not supposed to say… Do you know how this works?" She asked, pulling out Danny's thermos, which he had left in his locker. Danny barely had time to open his mouth before she'd pushed a button and sucked him into it. "Oh, that's how." She said cheerfully before flying off in roughly the direction of the Fenton house.

* * *

**_Author's Note: _**_Don't worry, I'll update soon with where she's taking him, he's not really in any danger.****And for those of you wondering how this can be set after Phantom Planet and still have Danny's identity a secret; that should be answered in the next chapter or two. Depending on how I break it up. I'd rather explain it in story rather than in an author's note._


	5. Rock Bottom

**Chapter Five**

**_Disclaimer: _**_Interestingly enough, I still don't own it!_

* * *

Vlad stared at Clockwork, confused. Walker had explained to him a couple hours before that the time ghost had contracted his services from the warden, and that if Vlad did what Clockwork wanted many of the restrictions he'd had placed on him in the ghost zone would be lifted, including the armed escort, for as long as he was working for the Ghost of Time. It had almost seemed too good to be true, and now he knew why. "You want me to act as a bodyguard for Daniel? What could he possibly need me to protect him from? Other than his father." Vlad too, had seen the news Saturday morning.

"Himself, in a manner of speaking. And you." Clockwork said, in his usual clear as mud manner.

Vlad took a deep breath and counted to twenty like his oh-so-perky anger management counselor had advised him to do when felt he was going to lose his temper, not only did it not work but it made him once again desire to track down her lair and find out for sure if a ghost could be killed again. "I don't suppose you're going to explain that." He said, more a statement than a question since he was a very bad day and no-one seemed to want to tell him anything.

To Vlad's surprise Clockwork waved a hand towards the portal and the image changed, he saw Danny in phantom form fighting someone in front of the Nasty Burger, his brow furrowed when the image froze on Danny's opponent. It looked like an older version of Danny, but at the same time… It wasn't quite like what he would expect an older Danny to look like, the fangs and pointy ears were certainly new. "That is Dan. He is what Danny could have become."

"How is he a threat to Danny?" Vlad asked, getting a little bored. It wasn't like a future version of Danny could destroy his past self, even if he did manage to travel through time, doing so would merely negate the existence of the future version, and create a paradox since someone who never existed couldn't possible travel in time to kill anyone. Or do anything else for that matter.

"Dan is not merely an older Danny, he's a compilation of your ghost half and Danny's. And he exists outside of time." Clockwork said, the images on the 'screen' were flitting through to show some of the things Dan had done.

Vlad was staring at the screen shocked, he was pretty sure he didn't want to ask how the ghost halves had ended up as one ghost, there were some things best left unsaid after all, but the actions on the screen seemed so much worse than anything even he had ever done, or considered doing, and were certainly worse than anything he could see Danny ever doing. After a moment the 'Exists outside of time' portion of the statement sunk in.

Before Vlad could figure out how to reply, a ghost cheerleader flew into the room, "You don't pay me enough, that girl in red is fast!" she said to Clockwork, tossing a thermos to him.

"Angie, you were supposed to ask him to come, not stick him in his own thermos." Clockwork said sternly as he released Danny.

The cheerleader shrugged, "Should have been more specific, all you said was 'get Danny'. That leaves a lot of room for interpretation, you're lucky I came back with the right Danny." She said before flying back out.

Clockwork sighed, "It's almost a pity her rival isn't dead too, she'd probably be less trouble if she had someone to compete against." He muttered as Danny glared after the ghost Clockwork had called Angie and brushed himself off, Vlad could almost swear he heard Danny muttering something about hating that 'stupid thermos', but was probably imagining it do his own feelings towards the infernal contraption. When Danny settled down and was looking at Clockwork questioningly, the ghost went back to the matter at hand. "Danny, you haven't talked to your parents yet."

Danny shrugged uncomfortably, "I brought the subject up with Dad…" he muttered.

Vlad smirked, not without a touch of bitterness, "I'm sure that went well." He said. He knew it shouldn't hurt that Jack had not yet forgiven him, but it did. He refused to question the matter and just hated the man all the more for it.

Danny shrugged again, drifting up to sit on one of the clocks, across the room from Vlad. "I've beaten Dan on my own before, I can do it again." He said, not looking at Vlad.

Clockwork sighed, glancing between to two halfas as he shifted from one of his forms to another. "Did you beat him Danny? Or did you merely not lose to him?" He asked. Danny blinked then looked at the floor. Vlad couldn't help but think that Clockwork had hit a nerve, a very tender one if the look on Daniel's face was any indication. Clockwork turned back to Vlad, "Do we have a deal or should I inform Walker that you have no interest in our little bargain?"

Vlad watched as Danny's expression tightened, but the boy said nothing. Whatever button Clockwork had pushed, it seemed to have frozen Danny in place. It made Vlad very curious as to what the Time Ghost had been referring to. "I'm not the only one that must agree to this scheme of yours Clockwork, and I'm not at all certain that even you could convince Jack and Maddie to leave their son alone with me for that length of time." He said slowly, suppressing the urge to ask how he had shut Danny up so effectively. "However, should they agree… Yes, we have a deal."

--------------------

"No Danni, you need to carry the three there."

Danny tried to block out Sam's voice as he struggled through his own algebra homework, five minutes into the tutoring session Sam had announced that she could only help one of them at a time, and Danny had said that Danielle needed it more since he was squeaking by with a C+. They were currently in his kitchen, since none wanted to deal with Vlad anymore this afternoon.

Danni had tried to get that article to show Danny, but she couldn't find it and Vlad had yelled at her for being in his office. Danny hoped that maybe Plasmius had finally figured out that leaving the article lying around with a kid the house was a bad idea and had put it up because of that, it was too little too late to keep from traumatizing Danielle, but it might be a sign that Vlad might have something that resembled a sense of parental duty. But, sadly, it was much more likely that Vlad thought he might be able to use the article to his advantage later and was just saving it.

Danny sighed and tried harder to focus on his schoolwork, his parents had heard about some a ghost attack about an hour north of Amity Park and probably wouldn't be back from checking it out for another couple hours, and Jazz had said something about college applications and locked herself in her room. But still, he couldn't help but think about how he was supposed to convince them that it was in his best interest to stay with his arch enemy while they were gone.

He snapped his book shut, Causing Sam and Danni to look across the table at him. "I'm going to talk to Jazz…" he muttered, standing up.

"Is everything okay Danny?" Sam asked, looking worried.

"Yeah fine." Danny said, he'd told Sam as much as he'd been able to about the situation before they'd met up with Danni, but he hadn't had a chance to talk to Danni about it yet. "I just need to talk to Jazz about something, before Mom and Dad get home."

"This doesn't have anything to do with those nut jobs that think we're vampires does it?" Danni asked, those guys freaked her out.

"No… Though come to think of it, Jazz probably has some theories on that." Danny replied, leaving the room before Danielle could question him further. It was only about a minute before the two girls heard Jazz start yelling…

* * *

**_Author's Note: _**_ Really, really short. Sorry! But it was the only place I could find to cut it without it running really long and losing coherency as a chapter (not that my chapters have much coherency to begin with… But that is not my point tonight)._


	6. Up From Here?

**Chapter six**

**_Disclaimer: _**_I do not own Danny Phantom._

_I also do not own Edgar Allen Poe or any of his supremely awesome poems. Or, sadly, any book containing said supremely awesome poems. I intend to remedy that though, the book part, as though that weren't obvious. Shutting up now._

* * *

"_What_ do you _mean_ you think we should _stay with Vlad_?! Have you lost your _mind_?! Have you _forgotten_ how many times he tried to _kill_ _you_ last year?"

"He didn't try to kill _me_; if he'd tried to kill me I'd be _dead_. He tried to kill _Dad_ and I got in the way, there _is_ a _difference_." Danny argued, even he had to admit it was a weak argument, but he needed Jazz on his side if he was going to convince his parents. He'd use any argument he could think of.

"How is that any better?" Jazz asked, she'd stopped yelling but still wasn't giving her brother a chance to respond. "Look Danny, I know you're big on second chances and all, but maybe some people don't deserve them."

"It's not a question of giving him a second chance Jazz; I don't have a choice…" Danny muttered, walking over to sit on her bed.

Jazz turned in her chair to keep facing him, "What do you mean? You always have a choice, you could stay with Tucker like you always do."

Danny sighed, "You remember when I took the C.A.T. right?" she nodded, "You know that file on my computer? The double pass-worded one?" he continued when she nodded again. "Did you ever get into it?"

"No, I never did figure out what that second password was." Jazz replied, now thoroughly confused, in part because he didn't seem mad that she'd tried to get into it.

Danny hesitated, "I put all the details I had on the ghosts that showed up around then, and everything I knew about the situation, into that file."

"Why are you telling me this now?"

"Because one of those ghosts is back, or, at least he's loose, and Clockwork seems to think that I won't survive if I stay with Tucker. Something about needing Vlad's help." Danny admitted.

"Since when does Vlad do _anything_ to help _anyone_ but himself?" Jazz asked.

"He has in the past!" Danny objected, "It was just usually all his fault to begin with." He muttered, still a little bitter about some of it.

"It doesn't count if it was too his advantage to help."

"Well then, I don't think it counts this time either, I think Clockwork made him a deal."

"Who?" Jazz asked, after she'd gotten over the excitement of being able to openly help him rather than trying to help him without giving away the fact that she knew what he was doing, ghost hunting had become more of a hobby than the calling it was for the rest of her family. She knew enough to help when needed, and to even be able to use it to blow off some steam sometimes, but she still managed to suck Danny into the thermos about once a month. And it was still _usually_ an accident.

"Clockwork is the ghost of time… Look, can't I explain all this later? It gets kind of complicated. I'll give you full access to my ghost files. Everything I have on him, and on Dan. But right now I need your help if I'm going to convince Mom and Dad to let me stay with Vlad while they're gone!"

"Who's Dan?" Jazz asked, getting the feeling that they had reached the real reason for Danny's sudden interest in changing the plan.

Danny winced, shifting uncomfortable, he hadn't planned on letting that slip. Jazz didn't know what he and Clockwork had taken to calling his dark future self and he'd have been happy to keep it that way a while longer. If only so that he didn't have to explain about Dan's escape just yet. "It felt weird calling him Danny… He's _not_."

Jazz blinked, figuring out pretty quickly who he was talking about and that it was still a sore point for him. "You're right, he's not. But Danny, if you're in danger maybe Mom and Dad shouldn't go…"

"No!" Danny pushed himself to his feet and started pacing. "Clockwork said that I'd need _Vlad_'s help, he specified, and there is no way I'll get his help if Mom and Dad are here. Besides, Dad's been planning this cruise for months. He bought the tickets, made all the arrangements, and even gave Mom the tickets on time and at dinner instead of in the lab three weeks late; this is a record for him!"

"But if you're in danger-" She broke off as Danny turned and interrupted her.

"It's all the more reason for them to go. Jazz, you know I can take out Skulker, and you'll back off and let me do it. They won't. They try to help, and I end dodging shots from two, or even three sides, and it's very distracting. It's worse than when you first started trying to help!" He dropped back onto the bed, "At least you figured out that I could handle it on my own after a couple days."

"Danny, they love you, they just don't want you to get hurt." Jazz said, moving to sit beside him on the bed and deciding that this time, she would ignore the crack about her first attempts to catch a ghost.

"I know…" Danny said grabbing Bearbert from her pillow and flopping backwards across her bed. "But what do you think they'd do if I got hurt in a fight? Really got hurt?"

Jazz reached over to snatch the bear from him as she answered, "That's easy, you know they'd-" she froze as she realized why he didn't want to tell them what was going on. Jack and Maddie Fenton would go after _any_ ghost that threatened their children, even the ones that they _knew_ weren't really a threat. If one actually hurt Danny, if one killed him, they'd go after it with everything they had. They wouldn't stop to make a plan, or find what had happened, they'd just go… And they'd get themselves killed. Because no matter what their parents thought, Danny could, and had, handled some pretty powerful ghosts. And he had some pretty powerful allies, both on earth and in the zone, allies that he could call if he were in real trouble. And he would call them, Jazz had no doubt about that, because while Danny wasn't afraid of dying in the traditional sense, he was very afraid of what would happen to the people he cared about if he did. "Oh shit…"

Danny nodded, handing her the bear as he stood up, "So you'll help me?"

Jazz took the bear and nodded back numbly, "I'll help."

--------------------

Danny sighed, wishing his parents would hurry up and get home so that he could get this whole mess over with already, and at the same time dreading the time when he'd hear them come in. Jazz was still in her room working on something for her college applications. She's sent out a bunch of them months ago, but apparently some of the colleges needed more information to see if she qualified for scholarships or something… He'd only been half listening so he wasn't certain, he was happy for her though since it had sounded like she was going to get into at least one of her top choices.

Sam and Danielle had left awhile ago, Sam to see how Tucker was doing and bring him his homework before she went on home; and Danielle had taken off through the ghost zone to grab some things from her house to spend the night, (using the ghost portals to move between the two houses was actually much easier than getting the G.I.W. to drop the ghost/human shield for her to come in for a few minutes) after Danny had explained what was going on, omitting where he suspected that article that she'd seen that they now couldn't find had come from, she'd offered to help him convince his parents.

Danny almost groaned as he realized that he'd managed to completely distract himself from his English homework, something he'd become very adept at doing lately. He took a deep breath and resolved to push everything that didn't involve Edgar Allen Poe out of his head, it wasn't hard since he liked Edgar Allen Poe. Lancer had actually decided to let each student choose which poet to do their report on, with the condition that no two students could do a report on the same poet. So of course Sam and Danny had argued over who got Poe, Danny had won by reciting 'The Raven' in its entirety.

This had occurred last Friday, which Danny thought was probably the only reason no-one had claimed Poe before he and Sam had settled the matter. And of course he was certain Tucker had somehow managed to get the whole thing on tape, and would probably think of something interesting to do with it once he was over the shock of how Danny could memorize poetry like that and still maintain a C average in English.

Danny jumped when Danni dropped her overnight bag into the chair across from him. "Jumpy?" she asked cheerfully as she dropped into the chair beside her over night bag. She'd done it intentionally of course, it seemed like he needed a distraction. He didn't of course, he had plenty of them.

Danny glared at her, but there wasn't any real heat in it. According to the clock behind her he'd managed to focus on his English assignment for nearly an hour, it was a personal record. Usually, something managed to distract him after about ten minutes, if he stayed focused that long.

"Dad caught me looking around in his office again, and now he seems really mad." Danni informed him, losing some of her cheerfulness. "I just don't know where that thing could have gone!"

Danny sighed, closing his book and pushing it aside slightly. "Good thing you're staying here tonight, hopefully he'll cool down by tomorrow. Don't worry about the article, it'll show up. If Vlad took the time to hide something, it's probably because he thinks he can use it later."

"Are you sure your parents won't mind me staying here tonight?" She asked, dropping the subject of the article, she'd look for it again when Vlad's human therapist came over Wednesday. Until then, Danny had enough the worry about. Besides, he was probably right, Vlad rarely did anything if he didn't think it was to his advantage, so if he hid the article it was because he thought he could use it against someone later.

"I doubt it. I mean, they usually don't…" Danny said thoughtfully, leaning back in his chair so that two of the legs lifted off the ground slightly. "But then, we aren't usually trying to convince them to-" He broke off as he noticed Danni's attention was focused somewhere over his head. "They're right behind me aren't they?"

* * *

**_Author's Note:_** _See why the last chapter was so short now? It would have been amazingly long if I hadn't cut it when I did. Also, a huge thanks to Bookworm700 for reading over this for me, and telling what I needed to work on. This chapter would have been much more confusing if you hadn't._


	7. Tension

**Chapter Seven**

**_Disclaimer:_**_ I'm sure in some alternate universe I own something of interest; it is probably not Danny Phantom though._

* * *

At Danni's slight nod Danny leaned further back in his chair tilting his head back to try to see behind him without turning around. Jack caught the chair as it began to fall and pushed his son back upright.

"Convince us to what Danny?" Maddie asked.

"Jazz! Mom and Dad are home!" Danny yelled, jumping to his feet.

"Daniel…" Maddie said sternly, causing Danny to wince at the use of his full name. He decided not to wonder why it didn't really bother him that Plasmius used it constantly, but it terrified him on the rare occasion that his Mother used it. The answer was probably in the question somewhere if he cared to look. "Convince us to what?"

"Well… Um…" A part of Danny brain that he really wished he could shut off was cheerfully cataloguing the number of ways his parents could kill him, just with the weapons they currently had on hand from their recent ghost hunting expedition. He knew they wouldn't, but there was still that part of him, namely the ghost part, that got a little nervous when facing irritable people holding ghost destroying weaponry. "I think maybe Jazz and I should stay with Mr. Masters while you guys are gone?" He said, subconsciously sidling over to stand closer to Danielle, who had leapt up when he had, putting most of the kitchen table between him and his parents.

If he took one more step back and two to the side he'd be directly across the table from them, a fact that was not lost on either of his parents. Maddie glanced at Jack, wondering just how close that stray shot the other night had come. She had no real way of knowing that Danny reacted in much the same manner, only slightly more openly defensive rather than merely wary, when confronted with an irritable Valerie in full battle gear.

Jazz came downstairs in time to hear Danny's suggestion, and couldn't help but notice that he was more hesitant with it to their parents than he had been with her. When she went in the kitchen she saw why, both her parents were still practically bristling with ghost weapons from their unsuccessful hunt, and looked vaguely annoyed. There were two ways she knew that it had been unsuccessful, one: they generally didn't look annoyed if they caught any ghost other than Danny (she wasn't the only one that sucked him into a thermos on occasion), and two: she'd called in that tip herself when she heard what happened at lunch, just in case Danny didn't get back before school let out. She'd have a chance to get home and erase any messages the school left about him skipping, use the booo-merang to find him, and wouldn't have to worry them over something Danny could probably handle on his own just as soon as someone let him out of the thermos. At least that had been her excuse when Sam had pointed out that she had covered for Danny yet again, just like she used to do before he'd told their parents about being Danny Phantom.

"What's going on?" She asked, mostly to break try to the tension since Danny wasn't the only one tensing up at the site of two heavily armed, semi-competent, and annoyed ghost hunters. Danielle's hand was white from gripping the back of her chair, and Jazz had a feeling that the one of Danny's hands that she could see would be shaking if it weren't pressed against the tabletop so hard. Something told her that she'd better figure out what had both halfas so tense before one or both of them snapped and let loose an ecto-blast or several.

"Yeah Danny, what is going on here?" Jack asked.

"_Why_ do you suddenly want to stay with _Vlad_?" Maddie asked, pushing the question of why her son had backed away from her aside to ask another time.

"Uh…" _Suffering Spooks, why couldn't I have taken ten minutes to think of a good reason?_ Danny though desperately, _And why can't they put down at least a few of those weapons?!_ He was saved from answering however by noise in the basement. His parents drew weapons and Danny's quick reflexes were all that kept Danielle from firing an excto-blast at the weapons that were now pointed at the basement door, right behind her and Danny. His hand leapt from the table to close over her fist even as it rose from her side and she started charging a blast. The silence that followed his shouted, "Danielle!" was almost deafening as the youngest halfa's eyes widened and she went very pink. But she didn't apologize for her reaction since she still had weapons pointed at her, well, past her, but the effect was the same.

Jazz's own eyes widened slightly as she figured out part of the problem, and she cursed silently that she didn't see it sooner. "Danny, why don't you and Danielle go see what that noise was? Mom, Dad, I need to talk to you for a second." She said quickly, grabbing her parents and dragging them into the living room before anyone had a chance to argue with her, or even fully recover from the shock of what had occurred in that split second. The flash of light that was her brother and his 'cousin' transforming served as the only indication that either halfa had heard her.

"What is going on here Jazz?" Maddie asked, holstering her weapon and crossing her arms. She wasn't sure what was going on, but it was a pretty sure bet that, whatever it was, Jazz knew about it. "Why does Danny suddenly want to stay with Vlad?"

"I don't know exactly… But do I know that Danielle has been tense all day and Danny hasn't exactly been relaxed since he talked to her this morning." Jazz said thinking fast, "I think it has something to do with something she saw on Vlad's desk this morning but since neither of them are saying anything about it now, I'm guessing they can't prove anything. But with both of them this tense… Maybe it would be better to talk to them without all the ghost weapons?" she suggested hesitantly. There were a couple thuds from the basement, then silence again.

Maddie glanced at Jack, _if Danielle had seen something on Vlad's desk that he didn't want her to see, then Danny might just want to stay with her in order to make sure she was safe until he could find out what was going on. But if that was the case, how did he expect to get Vlad to agree?_

Jack seemed to be thinking along a completely different line, his thought process was pretty much; _I bet Danny burnt his hand stopping Danielle like that; we'll need to find the burn cream… Was it in the fridge or the medicine cabinet? I think I saw it in the fridge behind the brownies Thursday… _ "Maddie, do we have any of those fudge brownies left?" he asked suddenly as he set aside the Jack-o-nine-tails and started removing the rest of his weapons. If it weren't for the fact that he was putting the weapons down, the two women might have thought he wasn't listening at all.

"No Jack, we don't." Maddie answered, right before her son called from the kitchen asking where the burn cream was.

Jack's muttered, "Well it was behind the brownies…" answered one of his wife's questions. Sadly, it was just the question of how he went from thinking about his son to thinking about brownies.

"I think it's in the fridge next to the ecto-samples." Maddie called as she finished shedding weapons.

"Which ecto-samples?" Danny asked, "Never mind, I found it." Danny came into the living room a moment later the burn cream in one hand and a Fenton Thermos in the burned hand. "Mom, how long has this been in the fridge and who is in it?" he asked reasonably. He knew from the half guilty-half stern look on his Mom's face, and the surprised look on his Dad's that he had just caught them doing something they didn't want him knowing about.

"I saw that in the fridge last week, I didn't really think about it." Jazz joined in, from the way both her parents flinched, she knew they had won. Whatever those two were doing with that ghost in that thermos, they weren't supposed to be doing it.

"We just wanted to ask her some questions… And maybe do some tests." Jack claimed, but he didn't meet the eyes of either of his children.

"I thought we'd agreed, no more catching sentient ghosts and running tests on them without their consent!!" Jazz objected, she thought about when she'd first spotted the thermos in the fridge and decided that it was probably the Lunch Lady in there.

"She agreed when she knocked my baby out cold with a giant turkey leg!" Maddie claimed.

"That wasn't an agreement to anything Mom, that's my life. And it was chicken." Danny went on before his Mother could object again, tired of his parents reacting so strongly to such minor injuries from such minor battles. "I spent most of last year as an oddity in the ghost zone, so I had ghosts coming through almost on a daily basis, sometimes several a day, just to see how strong the new halfa was. And after your reunion, I had to deal with Plasmius too. I dealt Skulker hunting me, wanting to put my pelt on his wall. I dealt with you two hunting me, wanting to rip me apart molecule by molecule and study the pieces. And I dealt with Valerie, who just wanted to blow my molecules apart.

The point Mom, is that I survived. And I managed to earn their respect. The really hard part is over, now the only ghosts that I have to deal with are the most stubborn ones. The ones that think they can beat me despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. And the Box Ghost, but think he just likes the fact that I don't laugh openly at him like most of the other ghosts do."

The room was silent, even Danielle, who had come up from closing the portal and putting the basement back to rights after the very brief fight with the Box Ghost while Danny had been talking, didn't say anything as Maddie took the thermos from her son and handed it to her husband. Then she took the burn cream and started tending Danny's hand, Danny shifted slightly on his feet, but let his mother tend him. The burn covered his palm but was already starting to heal, the cream was more to make it stop hurting than to do anything else. It probably wouldn't be more than a little red in the morning, it surprised her sometimes, how fast her baby healed now. And he was right, Phantom wasn't spotted fighting over the city as often now, and rather than being chased off the scene by the Red Huntress or the Fentons, he sometimes got help from them. And his friends were getting really good with that ghost hunting gear themselves, Danny had been right in suggesting they make some duplicates of some of the weapons. Her baby barely needed her anymore, somewhere along the way, probably when she'd been off inventing something that could kill him; he'd all but grown up.

Danny looked at her, "I'm not a baby anymore Mom." He said, no idea what was going through her head. "I can handle a little burn on my own."

"I know…" Maddie said sadly, "But you'll always be _my_ baby." She added hugging him. "I'll talk to your father tonight, we'll call Vlad in the morning." She whispered, so low that even he barely heard it then she let him go. "Come on Jack, let's go to bed. I'm sure the rest of this discussion can wait till morning can't it?" she asked.

Jack sighed, glad he'd talked her into eating on the way home, he knew that look, and what 'this discussion can wait' was code for. It unfailingly meant that she intended to finish the conversation without the kids, which usually meant that they stayed in whichever room she chose, with the door locked (and for past several months a small anti-ghost shield set up), until the conversation was finished.

Danny smiled as his parents went upstairs, and hoped that the anti-ghost they would probably set up wouldn't block the like they did last time. He grabbed the thermos from where his Dad had set it on the couch. "I better go set her loose."

* * *

**_Author's Note:_**_ Wow, that was a long scene. Makes me feel like Technus, only instead of being the master of long winded speeches, I'm the master of long winded scenes. It took up the whole chapter! Thank again to Bookworm700 for looking over it. And please remember to review if you have anything you want to say, even if it's negative!_


	8. Groundwork

**Chapter Eight**

**_Disclaimer:_**_ If I owned Danny Phantom, then I would probably have seen all the episodes. But I could be wrong there._

* * *

"I'm sorry, have we met before? You look familiar." The voice was warm, friendly, completely lacking the fear and loathing that he had become accustomed to hearing when people dared to speak to him. Frankly, this probably saved her, well, for lack of a better term, life.

Dan turned to look at the ghost who had dared to ask such a ridiculous question of _him_. She was dressed in a cheerleading outfit, a slightly old-fashioned one with the University of Wisconsin logo on it, her hair was pulled back into a single braid. Everything about her seemed to be in some shade of silver or gray, which made her an unusual ghost since most of them seemed to favor blues and greens, what was even more unusual was that she seemed to expect an answer. He couldn't decide if he was impressed at her gall, or annoyed by it.

"No. I don't believe we have." He answered curtly, turning away again. But something nagged at his brain, it was the part of him that wasn't Danny, the part was usually stayed quiet for fear of being completely annihilated, speaking up timidly. It claimed that she did seem vaguely familiar, like maybe they had met her before in the past. Perhaps the ghost that hid a few of their enemies from time to time? Wasn't she silver and gray? Though he didn't think she'd dressed as a cheerleader.

Dan considered that for a moment, it was true that she did kind of fit the descriptions he'd gotten from some of the ghosts sent as distractions, if you discounted the cold, calculating parts, and the way she had asked that question and then expected an answer did suggest that she was either insane or knew something he didn't… Or had no idea who he was! He turned internally on his other half, who reminded him quickly that he only knew half the plan and if he completely destroyed him then he couldn't go through with the rest of it and would probably just get beaten by his younger self again and get put back in another, probably stronger, thermos.

Dan was ready to risk it. But, luckily for the part of him that was still, technically, Vlad, Angie chose that moment to speak again. "I could swear I've seen you before…" She said circling him, and distracting him from his impending attempt to destroy his other half. "Oh!" Her face brightened, the confusion clearing instantly. "I remember now, you're the one Clockwork was showing to that ghost that reminded me of Vladimir."

Dan froze in the act of leaving her there and continuing his search, turning around slowly, "What was that?" he asked. His mission pushed to the side for the moment, the chance of finding out what his opponent might be planning too tempting to pass up.

------------------

Danny was on the phone with Tucker, as he waited for Danni to finish getting ready for school, and double checked that all his stuff was in his bag. "You know how sometimes one tense person in a room can effect the entire crowd? Imagine that, when the 'crowd' consists of two halfas and two heavily armed ghost hunters who came _into_ the room irritable."

There silence on the other end of the line for a moment. "That bad huh?"

"Danielle nearly blasted them." Danny said, flopping onto the couch to wait for the girl in question to come downstairs, and considering going upstairs to make certain she was indeed awake. He decided not to since Jazz was already up there. "Although to be fair, they did draw first."

"They what?!"

Danny almost smiled at the shock and horror in his friend's voice, and was glad that he could tell his friend something like that that without Tucker instantly calling social services on them. It helped that Tucker knew it probably wasn't what it sounded like; Danny's parents had drawn weapons around (and sometimes on) their kids, and their kid's friends, for years. It was one of the reasons neither of their children had very many friends, and the friends Jazz did have rarely came to Fenton Works. "There was a noise in the basement while we were talking, Danni and I were between them and the basement. It wasn't anything unusual really, but like I said, Danni and I were tense anyway."

"How close did she come to blasting them?"

"I have a burn on my hand from stopping her." Danny said, looking at said burn, which was actually still slightly blistered. "It's still got blisters." He added, mildly interested, but not really bothered by the fact since his mother had insisted on treating it with the cream again though she'd decided bandages weren't really necessary since the remaining blisters were few, small, and spread out. The cream had some mild pain relievers in it so it didn't really hurt. He'd considered asking his mom about getting an Aloe Vera plant for the house, but nixed the idea after considering what effect ectoplasm was likely to have on the healing properties of the plant. He'd get one for Sam instead, slightly less chance of ecto-contamination at her house and she'd probably love it.

"Considering how fast you heal dude, I think 'tense' might have been an understatement. Sounds like she nearly wasted your parents." Tucker said.

"It certainly would have messed up their plans for awhile, but I don't think it would have wasted them."

"You're handling it well."

Danny smiled at the wry tone of the observation, "I have bigger problems to worry about right now, and it's not like she meant to. Fight or flight you know? Danielle isn't too big on running away at the best of times… And I reamed her out about it last night." He heard Tucker chuckle at that, "Oh, speak of the devil, she's finally ready. Talk to you later Tuck, good luck with the doctor!" Danny hung up on his best friend as a still sleepy Danni was herded downstairs by Jazz.

"Come on! Even Danny is up, and has been for more than half an hour! We're going to be late if we don't leave now!" Jazz fussed, stepping into the kitchen to grab Danni a package of strawberry pop tarts from the cabinet. "There's your breakfast, now come on!" she said tossing that and a bottle of water, also from the cabinet, to Danielle before ushering both younger teens out the door and towards her car.

Danny was too busy trying not to laugh to object to being herded, besides… "Uh, Jazz? _Your_ bag?"

-----------------

"I just don't see why he wants to Maddie, he hates Vlad." Jack argued, pacing. They hadn't managed to finish the conversation the night before and now Maddie was almost at the point of hoping that his desire for breakfast would make him cave.

"But he loves Danielle; he treats her just like a little sister. He probably just wants to make sure everything is okay over there." She argued, sitting on the foot of their bed, then sighed as she realized they were repeating themselves.

Jack frowned slightly, "Did he tell you why they're so close? It seems like she dropped out the sky and he took right up with her. We don't even know where she came from; Vlad never mentioned having a kid before she came to live with him."

Maddie shook her head, "No, and I've asked. He just gets really nervous, mutters something about fruit-loops that I can never quite catch, and runs off. She does the same thing, and Jazz just says that it's not any of her business, but usually mutters something it being kind of creepy."

"Have you asked Sam or Tucker?"

"They just tell me to ask Danny." Maddie's frown deepened as she realized what her husband was doing, "And you are not going to distract me Jack. Don't you think we should at least talk to him? He probably wouldn't agree in any case, and we'll have made an effort."

Jack looked at her, "That's why you agreed isn't it? Because he won't." he asked, smiling slightly.

Maddie stood, wrapping her arms around her husband's neck. "If one thing is certain about Vlad, it's that he won't do anything unless it benefits him. And how could watching the kids for three weeks to let us take a second honeymoon possibly benefit him?" she asked.

------------------

Danny capped the thermos, throwing a smile at Sam. Between the two of them they'd managed to catch Bertrand in record time, of course, Spectra wasn't with him so that had to be factored in. But it was still pretty cool that it was looking like he wouldn't be late meeting his parents for that talk with Vlad, he really didn't want to miss that.

"Phantom!"

Danny turned at the shout, and saw the man, already holding out a bleeding arm. After quickly judging where the blood was coming from and figuring that the cut was high, and shallow enough that the guy wouldn't likely bleed to death for his sick and twisted offering, Danny turned himself invisible, and dove to grab Sam who had picked up his bag upon seeing the Vamp-Phan. He carried Sam halfway across town to his house, phasing through the door rather than risking turning visible long enough to change back, even under cover. He set her down, changed back, and leaned against the wall after a paranoid check out the window.

"Thank god for gag orders…"

* * *

**_Author's Note:_**_ I told you I'd explain the whole, 'the world doesn't know about him' thing in the story eventually didn't I?_


End file.
